May 2015 Budget Review & June 2015 Budget

I started combining my review and my preview of my budget last month, and it turns out I liked having them together, instead of separate as before, so this is how I’ll do it from now on.

This was my second month using the YNAB software, and I cannot sing the praises of this software enough. It makes me happy. And shows me pretty graphs… I splurged and bought a license this month. $60 USD turned out to be almost $75 CDN with the exchange rate. But the enjoyment and accountability that I get from this software is worth the expense.

So, let’s take a look at what the YNAB software can show us about our May spending…

So our total spending is down from April (by almost $ XXXX**), which is a good sign… and as usual, the big spending categories are always the mortgage and our food & drink… but this month our planned spending was up, as I’m sure it will be for the next couple months as we pay for all the things we’ve been saving up for (our new roof got started yesterday).

Let’s look at the numbers in detail…

As with last month, using YNAB rule #3 (rearranging the numbers to roll with the punches), we have moved some of the budget around to deal with things that come up, so to know exactly what we had originally budgeted for May, we have to look back at the May budget. But let’s just quickly go over each category:

1. Mortgage & Property Tax: I originally budgeted $ XXXX** for this one in May, but there was a bit of excess sitting in that category, so when things came up this month, I took it down to $ XXXX** to use up some of the extra and move things around. Otherwise, nothing to report here. Our mortgage is expensive, but it is the house we want. June budget has it the same as before.

2. Utilities & Home Insurance: We didn’t have to pay anything for utilities this month (they only come every other month or every few months), but I want this fund to be at least $ XXXX** for next February when our annual home insurance renewal is due, so I’m working at adding in a little bit to this fund each month. I had originally put $ XXX** in this category for May, but brought it down to $ XXX** to move some things around. For June, I’ve only put $ XXX** in to this category because I feel like we are on track…

3. RRSP & TFSA: Same same. Boring. $ XXX** budgeted, $ XXX** spent. As I discussed in my goals review yesterday, I need to work on increasing this, but for now it is the same.

4. Planned Spending / Saving: Originally the budget for May was just the transfer from my “slush” fund ($ XXXX**), but then I got my tax refund and I decided to put it in to the home reno fund. We spent some money on wedding related items this month, and I also went on a weekend away for a friend’s bachelorette, so some of the travel savings got spent. For June, I’ve budgeted $ XXXX** for this category. Mostly to finish up the home reno goal, and then for some traveling. Both my fiance and I have a few little trips planned for June that will probably cost a pretty penny or two… or a lot more than two…

5. Life Insurance, Medical & Family Expenses: We finally had a month without a bunch of dental expenses. I originally had $ XXX** budgeted for May, but took some of that out to move to other categories since we didn’t need it all this month! Yay! For June, it’s pretty much the same… fingers crossed we don’t need to up that one at all…

6. Cable, Cell Phones & Internet: The May budget was $ XXX**… but… my fiance had a little accident at work… and ended up in the water… with his phone… we tried the rice trick to see if we could dry it out, but it was dead. So, he had to go get himself a new phone. He used some of his rewards money, but it still cost a quite a bit… However, he now has a fancy new phone that is much speedier than his old one, and I think he is quite happy with the upgrade. Side note – we also invested in a battery for my old waterproof watch so he doesn’t have to keep his phone on him while working (he only kept it on him for the clock) and can leave it in a safe place… June should be a “normal” month for these expenses…

7. Car Insurance, Maintenance & Gas: Our fuel expenses have continued their downward trend, which is great! So I decreased this category from $ XXX** to $ XXX** for May, but have added $ XXX** for June because I know my insurance renewal is coming up soon, and I also know that I’ll be due for a scheduled car maintenance pretty soon, and I think it’s a big one this time…

8. Groceries, Eating Out & Liquor: We spend a lot on food and drink. I took a tiny bit out of this categories budget to cover other categories, and we just used some of the leftovers in this fund to cover this month. We are back up to $ XXXX** for June, and I feel with all the traveling and such planned this month, I don’t think we’ll be able to bring it down any…

9. Household Goods & Toiletries: This is where I had to move some money to… we had originally budgeted $ XXX** for May, but we decided to invest in a new patio umbrella (our old one had a mishap with some wind… and ended up in the neighbour’s bush… broken…) And of course we had to get a fancy one with a solar panel and built in LED lights… also, it is giant. But it has been awesome so far. Our back deck gets a lot of sun in the summer and can get unbearably hot, so this will totally help. This month I know we are planning on doing more yard work, and maybe getting a new fence put in…

10. Fitness & Sports: We didn’t spend the originally budgeted $ XXX** in May, so I took some of that away for the patio umbrella. I don’t really expect many expenses for this category in June, but you never know…

11. Clothing & Personal Care: I haven’t been spending much on clothing or anything recently… I think the only spending we did in this category is some sunscreen and miscellaneous toiletries. It is good to keep some money in the fund though so that we can pay for things when they eventually come up. And I want to get my hair trimmed at least once more before the wedding…

12. Misc.: These random things really add up. Mostly gifts… some bank fees… and this is where I put the YNAB registration expense. My fiance’s daughter’s birthday is coming up, so adding more to the gift fund…

13. Slush Fund: I have mentioned before that this “slush fund” used to be my safety net. Since using the YNAB software, I don’t need to have a safety net in my bank account because every penny has a job, and the saving for a rainy day is done with each line in the budget. So I moved this money to other categories this month, and will hide this line in future budgets.

So there you have it. Our finances in a nutshell… a really big long blog post nutshell… I apologize for the length… I’ll try to be more succinct next time.

How did your May budget work out?

**Edit: I have decided that I don’t want to share my actual numbers on the blog, so I have removed them from this post… Sorry if it makes it a bit confusing or unreadable… Hopefully it isn’t unbearably so.

It’s a tough thing to do. As you can see by our numbers here… We haven’t really been good at staying within the original numbers that we budget at the beginning of the month, but rolling with the punches is part of the YNAB philosophy, so we are succeeding at that!